When I interned in CA in 1997, my roommate was a high school English teacher. He had some connection to Ray Bradbury and got him to come to the school to speak. I got to go, and I took along a copy of Fahrenheit 451 for him to sign. My roommate had a crappy Mazda 323 hatch, and since Ray didn't drive anymore, he drove him home and had him sign the dashboard with a Sharpie. A great storyteller will be missed.

People always talked about the "Big Three" of sci-fi (Asimov, Clarke and Heinlein), and while I agree that those three deserved the honorary title, I always thought it should be the "Big Four" and Mr. Bradbury should've been on that list too.

The four of them, along with Vonnegut, really lit my brain on fire as an adolescent. The world seems dimmer without them, but fortunately I've got dozens and dozens and dozens of their paperbacks lining my shelves to brighten my evenings.

RIP, Ray. You were a very important part of my childhood. As far as I'm concerned, Ray was the true father of science fiction, and only Stanisław Lem could give him a run for his money. Asimov was a poser and neither Clarke nor Heinlein are even blips on my radar.

Here's to the finest short story writer of all time. I drink in your honor tonight, Ray.

Every spring I remember the Cream-Sponge Para Litefoot Shoes from Dandelion Wine. I remember when I was thirteen and running home from school on the first day of spring that I wore shoes instead of boots. It was like flying.

Asimov was a poser and neither Clarke nor Heinlein are even blips on my radar.

This isn't the thread to do it, but one day you and I are going to have a heated argument about this

Challenge accepted, my good sir! The gauntlet hath been thrown.

That said, I can tell you in advance we won't get much further than "agree to disagree," as I understand and accept that it's merely a matter of subjective preference for style. I enjoy my sci-fi light and pulpy. Ray's short stories were thus a perfect fit for me, whereas I found Clarke and Heinlein to be dry, tedious, and boring, same as all of Herbert's stuff after Dune.

Ray was like The Expendables versus... well... the 2001: A Space Odyssey of everyone else. From my perspective, science fiction is simple and straight forward. IMO, Ray cut to the root of the matter and bypassed all of the bullshit. Now that you understand my perspective, I trust my comment makes a lot more sense.

Very sad, but he had a good run. I love his writing still. And "Something Wicked This Way Comes" was one of the first novels to ever scare the piss out of me, when I was a kid. I'd take that over Stephen King any day of the week.

Jakal wrote:

Ray was like The Expendables versus... well... the 2001: A Space Odyssey of everyone else.

Please, please tell me that you did not just favorably compare Ray Bradbury to a summer popcorn action flick while simultaneously dissing one of the greatest movies ever made. You meant to say

Quote:

Ray was like the 2001: A Space Odyssey versus... well... The Expendables of everyone else,

right?

(Edit the 2nd: Not that I agree with your dismissal of Asimov, Clarke etc. to be valid, but I will listen to an argument that Bradbury was a better writer than them.)

Fahrenheit 451 is a classic. As Bradbury said many times, and I didn't get until later in life, it isn't about censorship. It's about a culture abandoning ideas in favor of simple-minded, overheated politics, wars and toys. Every year culture moves closer to one in which contemplation is no longer socially acceptable. I sometimes think of the guy who gets hunted down as a suspicious character for being weird enough to take a walk alone. (Among the scenes of helicopters chasing Montag.) I know the feeling. Try walking to work for pleasure and see how much ridicule you get from the cubicle gallery. Or admit you don't watch teevee.

Quote:

Here's to the finest short story writer of all time.

That would be Hemingway, at least in English. Bradbury's short stories are often good though, while some of his other work is a little stilted and silly, the way sci-fi prose usually is. But F451 is built to last.

Every year, in fall, I re-read "The October Country." His early works are rough around the edges, but have moments of real beauty in them (and "The Lake" is a classic, no question).

He was better with short stories than with novels. Even 'The Martian Chronicles' is more of a collection of stories than a real novel. "Something Wicked This Way Comes" is great, though... I'll probably revisit a bunch of his stuff that I haven't read in a while. I'll find my copy of Dandelion Wine and of The Illustrated Man and read them again. What better way to celebrate his life?

Asimov was a poser and neither Clarke nor Heinlein are even blips on my radar.

This isn't the thread to do it, but one day you and I are going to have a heated argument about this

Challenge accepted, my good sir! The gauntlet hath been thrown.

That said, I can tell you in advance we won't get much further than "agree to disagree," as I understand and accept that it's merely a matter of subjective preference for style. I enjoy my sci-fi light and pulpy. Ray's short stories were thus a perfect fit for me, whereas I found Clarke and Heinlein to be dry, tedious, and boring, same as all of Herbert's stuff after Dune.

Ray was like The Expendables versus... well... the 2001: A Space Odyssey of everyone else. From my perspective, science fiction is simple and straight forward. IMO, Ray cut to the root of the matter and bypassed all of the bullshit. Now that you understand my perspective, I trust my comment makes a lot more sense.

You newbs are going on about the Golden Age authors - Wells, Burroughs, and Smith are the more proper "fathers".

And at least he won't have to suffer the horrors of cellphones, internets or e-books anymore.

What, precisely, is wrong with e-books?

For a science fiction author, Bradbury had a strong antitechnological streak. He didn't care for the internet or for e-books (and he was ambivalent about TV and hated to fly).

Which, when you read his stories, makes sense. He wasn't interested in the trappings of scifi, he was interested in people and in stories. His outlook never changed much from his 13-year-old self from the early part of the 20th century.

I knew this day was coming eventually, but it still hurts bad. The Martian Chronicles is still one of my favorite books, and everything else I've read by him has been thoroughly entertaining. It's really too bad to hear of his passing.

As much as he was against e-books, I do hope his works get released now in e-book form. His writing is amazing, and I'd love to keep a copy of a few of his works on my phone/iPad for downtime reading.

My introductoin to sci-fi; My dad got me reading EE Doc Smith's Skylark books when I was 9 or 10 and I quickly moved on to Bradbury and Clarke's short stories before diving headlong into giant Asimov tomes (Foundation).

When I was a kid I must have read The Martian Chronicles close to a hundred times. Plus, I was constantly pestering librarians to find out if any more stories had been released. I have never read it as an adult. I think I will have to remedy that.